News

Now there's no tomorrow for leader's scheme

A SCHEME to produce entrepreneurs of the future, personally endorsed by Jack McConnell, the first minister, has been scrapped due to lack of cash, writes Kathleen Nutt.

The £1m Tomorrow’s Leaders International (TLI) programme, launched four months ago, was intended to send youngsters to America for internships at blue-chip organisations such as the Smithsonian Institute and the Kennedy Center.

Interviews for the scheme have been cancelled and the 20 places that were to be taken up by Scots this summer will not be filled.

The news is acutely embarrassing for McConnell, who who spoke at the TLI pilot launch three years ago, promising that recruits would be “taking the message right into the heart of America that Scotland is a country brimming with talent”.

He added: “I want more Scots to follow their lead.”

The cancellation of the project was revealed in a leaked letter, written by Bob Creighton, the